I just received an email for Brandon Abbey announcing the sale of Escrow.com to Freelancer.com. Mr. Abbey put it best “Earlier today Freelancer.com announced the acquisition of Escrow.com, subject to regulatory approval. Needless to say, this is very exciting for us to be joining the world’s largest freelancing, outsourcing and crowdsourcing marketplace and their 15 million users in 247 countries around the world. The company will remain a California based business and we will continue to operate the business as usual and to exceed the high standards that you have come to expect from us” Below is the press release
Freelancer.com announces the acquisition of
Escrow.com and completion of capital raising
SYDNEY, April 27, 2015: Freelancer.com, the world’s largest freelancing and crowdsourcing marketplace1, today announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Escrow.com from a private investor for US$7.5 million in cash, and completed a AUD$10 million placement of ordinary shares to institutional investors.
Headquartered in California, Escrow.com provides online escrow services that facilitate and accelerate e-commerce by assuring secure settlement. It was founded in 1999 by Fidelity National Financial, a Fortune 500 company and the US’s largest provider of commercial and residential mortgage and diversified services.
Escrow.com is the leading provider of secure online payments and online transaction management for consumers and businesses on the Internet, with FY14 gross payment volume of US$265 million, net revenue of US$5 million, US$1.2 million in EBITDA and over US$2.2 billion in transactions to date.
Escrow.com reduces the risk of fraud by acting as a trusted third party that collects, holds and disburses funds according to buyer and seller instructions. Escrow services provided by the company are licensed and regulated.
Escrow.com partners include eBay, GoDaddy, AutoTrader.com, Flippa.com and it is also a strategic partner of the U.S. Commercial Service (USCS) in support of President Obama’s National Export Initiative designed to significantly grow US export volume.
Freelancer.com Chief Executive Matt Barrie said, “We are pleased to acquire Escrow.com, the world’s largest online escrow company. This highly complementary acquisition will enhance the ability of our 15 million users to transact securely, and there are large opportunities for growth and synergies with core offerings. Finally, it is a strong cornerstone for entering the payments space”.
for US$7.5 million in cash.. That is it?
Am I missing something?
On the other hand, congratulations Brandon and thanks for sharing Shane 🙂
Manmeet,
And $10 Million AUD ($7.8 Million USD) in stock. So essentially $15 million. Sounds low to me but I have ZERO information on the financials of Escrow.com. The price says a lot about Escrow.com and the value of the other escrow companies as well.
Shane,
I could be wrong, but I don’t think the seller got any stock. The deal was $7.5 million cash. The “$10 Million AUD” was money Freelancer.com raised by selling stock, and they then used this money to buy Escrow.com.
As per above, it reads that Freelancer placed $10 of stock with institutional investors. Only relationship may be that the proceeds were used for the acquisition, although this isn’t stated.
Yes . I read that wrong. Thank you both
Wow, was really surprised to see only $1.2 million in EBITDA??
So net income for FY14 was likely under $1M? … I would have assumed Escrow.com was a much more profitable company given the total revenue figures.